Potty training relapse

For a few weeks now, we've boasted that Aislin is completely potty trained.  Well.  She showed us what she thought about that by completely forgetting everything we'd taught her.  We're not exactly at square one, but to say we're one square away from square one probably isn't an exaggeration.  We've resorted to having her in pull-ups as sort of a compromise, but it's disheartening.  We'd rather have her in big-girl panties, but she has accidents all day long and exhausts our supply.  Thank God for our washer and dryer.  At least her Number Twos make it to the potty with reliability.

We've been trying to ween her, too.  At night, Aislin would ideally like to nurse until daybreak.  Well.  You can imagine how Kate feels about that.  Not supportive.  So instead of Kate sleeping with her, I sleep with her now.  When Aislin wakes up wanting "milkie" I take her to the living room and give her a bottle in the rocking chair.  For the past few nights, all I've had to do was get up and put her on my shoulder and she's asleep again.  "In full conk" as dad would say.  Kate gets more sleep that way, and I feel like I contribute more.  It's been working out pretty well. 

Here's a picture of Aislin in an outfit she got for her birthday.

She has a ton of energy, a lot of spunk, is capable of amazing amounts of destruction, and laughs all the time.  Bless her.

Potty training at the DMV

We're still potty training in the McClain house of pain, but it's going much better lately. Yesterday, Aislin walked herself into the bathroom, pulled down her pants, and sat on the potty all by herself. This was a momentous step. She's been leading up to this for a little while now, and to see it come to pass makes me swell with pride. I would swell even more if I weren't still a little bitter about a recent fiasco at the DMV.

Going to the DMV is hard enough already. You don't need a baby pooping through three layers of clothes to make it worse. The full story goes like this. Around 11:00, we left for Lebanon to have lunch with my grandmother, dad, and brother. I had the travel bag, her travel potty, gallon bags for the travel potty, and library books to return. We had showered and brushed our teeth ... eh, you don't need all the details. Suffice to say, I was loaded down but feeling confident. Once we got out of Philomath, I realized I didn't have a bottle for her or fresh panties. If she had an accident, it was game over. I figured worst case scenario, I'd have to pick up new panties at Walmart. We got to Lebanon accident free. After lunch, still no accident. Made it back to Corvallis to the DMV to get new tags on the car, no accident. I left the baby bag in the car (first mistake) and went inside. I got number 45, and they were on 42. There was a sign that said they only accept cash or checks, which I thought was strange, but there you are. I went to the ATM and withdrew enough money to cover it. Again, this is probably more than you are interested in, but the point is I was overloaded but confident. I felt on top of it. I was doing totally well, and the baby was proving herself to be very potty trained. After filling out the form, I pick up the baby and she's wet. I take her into the men's room to go potty, and that's where I discover she's more than wet. The baby bag's in the car. There's baby poop down to her knees, soaked through her clothes, and spreading all over the bathroom floor. The only thing I have to clean it up is DMV toilet paper. It was a hard time. I wrapped her dirty clothes in paper towels, and put her skirt back on; I didn't have anything else. I did my best, and then informed them there was a mess in the men's room. After getting the new tags, I rushed out to the car and changed her clothes and cleaned her up. Then I went to K-Mart and got new panties. Now, there's a package of panties that is just for the travel bag. Kate informed me later that there were pull-ups in the bag. So, potty training isn't without incidents now and then.

Aislin's been watching my old ninja turtle tapes, and I don't know how my parents put up with it. I think I do understand why they took the opportunity to buy new ones as soon as they could. When you get used to full seasons of shows on DVD, it's tough to go back to two episodes per video, and there are only five videos. We had to order season 2 on DVD. I'm eagerly anticipating its arrival.

I think that's all for now. Here's a video of Aislin doing a somersault.

Here's to another go

My friend Alicia said she missed my posts, so I'll try to re-commit to this blog. No promises. It's really turned out to be a fool's errand to keep up a blog, or three, while being a stay at home dad. That's been a big "well, duh" moment for me.

A lot has happened since April. In November, we were pleasantly surprised with an eviction notice. We had a handful of weeks to find a new place to live before they tore our apartment complex down. It added a little stress to our holiday season, it's safe to say. We found a place in Philomath, and we're much happier here. The kitchen is huge. It goes on for days. It's quite wonderful.

More recently, we went to Bandon to visit the West Coast Game Park Safari. They had baby lions and black leopards for visitors to pet. I played with a baby lion. They had lions, tigers, bears (oh my), leopards, monkeys ... it was a wild animal extravaganza. Aislin had a blast. On top of all the animals in the cages, there were deer, goats, llamas, and pheasants roaming around free. It was a really great time. We all smelled like a barn afterwards, but it was worth it. Here's a video of Aislin looking at the bears.




As you can see, she is walking and talking quite well. We went with Kate's parents, and a fun time was had by all.

Even more recently, we've begun the arduous task of potty training. It started out quite well. Aislin really took to the concept of "big girl panties" and "pee pee in the potty," but lately she's been regressing. Yesterday she had quite a few accidents. It has really tried our patience. One of the books we got said that the most child abuse begins when a child has an accident while potty training. It's a sad and horrible thing to think of. The child really only has a rudimentary concept of what's going on in her body. She can't be held totally responsible or be expected to pick up on it right away.

We've done potty training at the expense of weening. We thought that would be too much change at once. Aislin must be under a great deal of stress because she has been nursing like crazy during the night, making Kate's sleep nearly non-existent.

So, hard times in the McClain house of pain, but tempered with pride and fun. C'est la vie, I suppose.

Water babies and sass

Hello everyone. Let me explain some things openly and honestly. When I started this blog, I had recently seen Julie and Julia. I thought to myself, I'm an aspiring writer. I could blog about being a stay at home dad, like Julie did about cooking through Julia Child's cookbook. Here's the thing, though. Cooking is not as labor-intensive as being a stay at home dad. It doesn't take all day every day to cook something. It always takes me all day to take care of Aislin. By the end of the day, I'm exhausted. So I haven't posted in a while.

Kate signed Aislin and me up for water babies a while back, and we started last week. Aislin normally likes the water. She likes bathing. She'll play with toys in the water and splash and have a good time. Well, the pool is different. She's okay as long as she's on my shoulder. If she's not on my shoulder, it's not okay. She's firmly established herself as the sensitive one in the group. I was talking to Dad about this, and he said that it took me something like seven years before I was comfortable in the water. Whatever the activity is, if she is not on my shoulder, she's crying. She doesn't like being dunked, doing the arm motions, kicking, jumping off the side, nothing. She doesn't mind being on the instructor's shoulder, as long as it's not for very long. In spite of her lack of enthusiasm, we're keeping at it.

Kate's been sick with a sinus infection and a bout of pneumonia. At this point, she's missed a grand total of four days of work, I believe. When I was driving her home from the doctor's office, she was talking about how she felt awful. Jokingly, I told her to get over it. This is how we are. She says something serious to me and I respond jocundly and she whimpers and asks why I don't love her. Obviously, it's the system of a healthy relationship. Anyway. I told her to get over it. And Aislin says in the same tone, Yeah! A few days later, Kate was telling me I needed to change the baby's diaper. I said, "Change the baby's diaper, blah blah blah." Aislin responded "blah blah blah." We laughed very hard.

She's cruising the furniture solidly now. She can almost reach the top of the table, and Kate and I are worried about that because up until now it's been a safe place to put stuff we don't want her getting into. Not for much longer. A few nights ago, she was cruising along, and she stumbled. She hit the edge of the coffee table and cut the inside of her mouth. We're not sure where. She started bleeding, and that's when we freaked out. We've got a couple of shirts now that have blood stains on the left shoulder where we were trying to console her. We haven't found the cut, but it couldn't have been too bad since it stopped bleeding pretty quickly.

That's about all I have to report. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post again. I can't promise I'll be more on top of it from now on. The baby never naps. When she does nap, she doesn't sleep that night. She's crazy. I try putting her down so I can type or do something for myself, and she starts pulling books off the shelves or playing for the mouse and keyboard. She's also getting to the point where she has opinions. If she wants something but doesn't get it, she gets pretty mad about it and starts screaming. Meanwhile, I see posts on facebook of parents who have their new child sleeping in a separate bedroom and everything. What I wouldn't give to have Aislin sleeping in a different bedroom. Heck, I'd be glad to have her content to sleep in a different bed. More often than not, she's sleeping horizontally between Kate and me, so I have one shoulder blade hanging off the edge of the bed. She still hates her crib. She only naps in her car seat. What I need is a remote control for her. I can mute her when she's screaming, pause her when she's getting into my stuff, and rewind when she falls and hurts herself. It's the 21st Century. Anyone want to tell me why we don't have one of those yet?

Merry Christmas (belated)

All right. It's been a while, I know. In fact, several items that would be of particular interest have come and gone and faded from memory to obscurity. And yet, posts remain scant. I apologize. Things haven't exactly been hectic here, but I have been busy.

First of all, let me talk about what you want to hear about the most: my daughter. She clearly says "mama," now. She says it when she's unhappy, hungry, or in her arms. Sometimes she'll just say "ma ma ma ma" on and on. It's lovely. First, she said it to me. I said, "No I'm 'Da da.' Can you say 'Da da?'" and she smiled and shook her head. When I would ask her to say 'Da da' later, she'd spit. Kate saw all this, and she said, "Aislin would just rather say Ma ma instead," or something implying her preference. In response, Aislin said "Yeah." Goodness. Today, she started saying Da da to my immense pleasure. She also says "Bah bah," which could mean any number of things, but could be "Baby." She says it to her dolls, mostly.

She has five dolls now. Christmas came and went, and when the dust settled Aislin had five dolls. Two Raggedy Annes, a tiny doll, a doll whose body could also function as a pillow, and a more traditional doll. She loves them all. Here we were trying to be all gender-neutral, but when my mom brought out the doll she had growing up, Aislin went ballistic. So we all knew what we were getting her for Christmas. She got those five dolls, some clothes, and an illustrated Grimm's Fairy Tales from me. She likes the dolls best.

She's much more mobile now, as well. She crawls quite well. She's a little shaky still, but she can really get moving if she feels like it. Yesterday, Kate tried standing her up next to the coffee table, and Aislin can totally hold herself up. It won't be long before she's cruising the furniture.

As for me, I'm transcribing and reading. I'm enjoy my doctor's orders to a glass of red wine at dinner (I still can't get over that) and trying to walk more. Last week, I walked from our apartment to the public library, checked out a few books, then I walked down to Fred Meyer to check out the Redbox, and then I walked home. About a 45 minute walk, and it felt great. Towards the end, Aislin was getting a little sick of it, but it was cold and rainy. Haha! Taking a baby for a 45 minute walk on a cold, rainy morning. Parenting FAIL. Ah, she survived. Didn't even get sick. That's my girl. There's a book I put on hold at the library waiting for me, so I may make the trek again tomorrow. It will probably not be raining, just freezing cold. I may hold off to the afternoon, when it inevitably breaks into sunshine, like it did today.

I really like these winter days. They're freezing cold, it's true, but it's because the cloud cover that was functioning as a thermal blanket for the Willamette Valley lifted and we have these clear blue skies. Everyone complains about the cold. Well, I've noticed that a lot of people also complain about the heat. I, for one, don't mind the cold. This is Oregon. Sometimes it's cold.

Before Christmas, our friends Joel and Heather moved to LA. On their way out, they spent the night at our place because they had packed their bed. It was great seeing them one last time, though it would have been nice to spend more quality time with them. It felt like as soon as they got there we said goodnight. Then, they left early in the morning. Their company did what it seemed to always do: Leave us wanting more. A few weeks after, our friends Tim and Elisha stayed with us for a couple nights on their way back home to LA (LA!!) after spending Christmas with their families up here. Elisha and Kate used to live together, and they are some of the greatest people. Kate keeps saying how she hadn't realized how much she missed them, Elisha in particular.

Kate got some good pictures of Aislin, but I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet and it's late. I'll post them on my facebook tomorrow and include some in my next post. Sorry to leave you hanging like this, but you've got to be used to it by now. Aislin will be nine months old on the 14th, so I'll try to post at least around then.

Greatest doctor's visit ever

Okay, it has been pointed out to me that I should give you all an update since I talked about a lump on my stomach in my last post. Turns out it's the beginning of a hernia, and it was brought on by all the heavy lifting I've been doing lately. I just need to keep an eye on it, and stop lifting heavy things. If it gets worse, then they'll do something about it, but it will most likely get better on its own. My back pain is probably due to my sedentary lifestyle, or stress. Either way, exercise is the answer. So I'm going to be going on walks every day, hopefully. I'll try, anyway.

On a side note, I brought in my blood panel results. Wait, wait. Let me back up. At Kate's work, they offered complimentary blood panels to employees and their spouses, so I got some free blood work done. I'm healthy in most areas. I could lose some weight, blah blah blah. Diet and exercise, blah blah blah. Here's a cool thing: There are two types of cholesterol. One is good, the other is bad. The bad one, obviously they want it low. Mine was quite low enough. The good cholesterol they want it measured between 40 and 60. I don't know what the units are or what they relate to, I just know that mine was 20. Much too low. The doctor (I'm assuming) at the blood panel suggested fish oil and grape seed oil and diet and exercise. Okay. The doctor I saw a couple of days ago about my "hernia," suggested I also try having a small glass of red wine with dinner every night.

That's what I call the jackpot.

To top off the day, the final present I ordered for Kate online came in the mail as well as a book I ordered for myself. It was the greatest Monday in history.

While I was at the doctor's office, my friend Kevin watched Aislin. Now, when I'm caring for her and Kate comes home, Aislin bursts into tears because she's just so happy to see Mommy she needs to be in her arms right now. Well. When I came home from the doctor's office and Aislin saw me, she burst into tears. It was neat being on the other side of that phenomenon.

This has nothing to do with this post -- I went to the dentist today

I'm somewhat at a loss.

Aislin has done some amazing things recently. She's crawled a little bit, even. When she went in for her second flu shot, she didn't even cry. She's been fairly amiable and cheerful, but never so much that it gets old. She loves fake coughing. She's discovered a fondness for dolls, and ever since has been getting a new doll every week. There's so much.

Last weekend, we finally had our house-warming party. We found out that our apartment living room is not as well-suited to entertaining large numbers of guests like our old one. With everyone there, it felt a little cramped. Still, we had a good time. My friend Eric pointed out, during one of the many interludes during which Aislin took center stage, that watching her try to crawl was incredibly suspenseful. It sounds ridiculous, but it's totally true. She kneels there in a crawling position and rocks back and forth until she falls over. Each time, you think "Oh, this is it! She's going to do it! Maybe this time she'll finally do it!"

One afternoon, she was playing with her green ball -- it's actually MY green ball: it's a ninja turtles ball from when I was a child -- and it rolled out of her reach. She adjusted herself into her crawling position and reached out for it. She touched it just enough to push it just a little further out of reach. So she moved her knees and reached out for it again. This process repeated a few times and I knew what I was seeing, though I don't think she knew what she was doing. She hasn't really done it since.

Our good friends Joel and Heather are moving to Pasadena even as I'm typing this. There was a going away party which included a white elephant gift exchange. At this party, during one of the break-off-into-small-groups-and-chat segments, Aislin looked up at Joel from her mother's arms and waved and said, "hi." Joel's eyes reportedly popped out of his head. I'm not sure why I didn't see it; I must have been thinking about something else.

Like this lump on my belly. A few nights ago, I discovered I have a lump on my belly. It's not sensitive, and I'm seeing the doctor on Monday, but still -- disconcerting. Lumps aren't good. A lump of coal is good. A lump of flesh is not good. Read Merchant of Venice if you don't believe me.

I have all of these ideas and ambitions. I have ideas for stories and ambitions to blog more often and write more and transcribe more and be a more profitable member of the family. But Aislin wears me out. The only time I really have to write is after everyone else goes to bed. And why aren't I in bed? That's what I want to know. I'm exhausted.

Aislin's growing up, but I'm the one in growing pains.

All right. Aislin's been doing some growing.

We've concluded that she's going to be tall. She's already tall for her age. Her pants are for a 12 month, and they're just barely long enough. But the waistline is too big, so she looks like she's thugging it.

She's super active all the time. Actually, she's napping right now. But most of the time, she's super active. She's always been looking around, but now she's unhappy staying still for too long. She gets bored. This would be an easy problem for her to solve if she just learned to crawl. The other night, it seemed like she was crawling backwards. So, that was funny. Later, she came very close to crawling in earnest, but didn't completely take off. Kate and I agree: She'll be crawling by Christmas.

She's been exploring her vocal abilities, too. She'll say "bah bah bah" and sometimes she'll say "hi." She waves at people. Yesterday, when Kate and I were driving home from Lebanon, she made a noise that sounded vaguely like "I love you," so Kate and I said in unison "I love you too." Pretty sure she didn't actually say it, but it was still cute, funny, and exciting.

Remember way on back when she had the habit of urinating when we took her diaper off? Well, she was over it for a while, but she seems to have picked it back up. I really preferred it when she wouldn't do that. Ah well. Soon she'll be crawling and her excrement will be everywhere. And all our stuff. More so than it already is. ~shudder~

We finally have the living room in a state in which we are comfortable entertaining guests. Until now, it's been pretty messy. Now, we've moved the mess into the study and the bedroom, so we just need to focus our energies in those two rooms and we'll be golden.

There's still quite a bit of work to do.

On that note, my friend Luke tells me he's going to Haiti for nine months. Okay. That means, he's got until Thursday to complete his finals, pack up his apartment, and leave. On the one hand, I'm kind of mad that so many of my friends are moving out of reach. Luke's going to Haiti. Joel and Heather are moving to Pasadena. Ted has a full-time job so he's pretty much only available to hang out on the weekend, like a normal person. At least Kevin's back. That pretty much makes up for it. But back to Luke. On the one hand, I'm mad. On the other hand, he is somewhat concerned about uprooting his life for the past, what, year? In less than a week? But he's able to do it. His furnishings are spartan enough to accommodate that. I wouldn't have a prayer. I need a four-bedroom house for all the junk Kate and I have accumulated. And if things keep progressing along the path they have been for the past three years, I'll never have one. I'll live with junk in plastic boxes stacked in the middle of the floor forever.

Rice Krispies

I guess I'll do an update before I get back to work. I've been transcribing a lot. My goal is to earn $1,000 each month, and to do that I only need to type 25 pages each weekday. It's not a problem as long as I stay on top of it. I fell behind, and I've been struggling to catch up ever since. I'm very close now though, so I'm feeling good about it.

Two days ago, Aislin had her six-month doctor's visit. Some of you may be thinking, "I thought she was older than six months." Well, you're right. And thanks for paying attention. You have something on your nose. :) She's actually seven months old, but I was about a month late in scheduling her four month appointment, and these two visits include several shots so they have to be adequately spaced apart for medical reasons I don't quite follow but it sounds believable enough so I just go with it. This time, Kate was able to come. It was really great to have her there. For some reason, and I can't figure this out, Aislin doesn't like getting shots. I don't know. But with Kate there, she just started nursing as soon as the shots were over, and Aislin calmed down and went to sleep. She provided much more comfort than I was ever able to on my own. At her last visit, I just had to carry her out crying. The contrast between the looks I got then and the looks we got now isn't as stark as you would think.

Lately, she's been having a hard time sleeping through the night. We asked the doctor about that, and she recommended rice cereal. When we were going to go to the store and pick some up, I asked Kate if Rice Krispies would do it. Sadly, I was totally serious. Kate laughed until she cried and said if I bought Rice Krispies, I would never live it down. She would make fun of me for the rest of my life. Turns out there's "Rice Cereal" next to baby formula and baby food down the baby aisle. Yeah, because I frequent the baby aisle so often. How was I to know Rice Krispies aren't the proper rice cereal? Doesn't every kid love snap, crackle, pop?

Anyway. We got the cereal, and Aislin loves it. We were totally lucky there. She eats it and eats it. And then, and this is the greatest part: She sleeps. She sleeps for hours on end. She still wakes up, but it's not every hour like it was. We're so grateful to you, rice cereal. Even if you don't snap, crackle, and pop.

Apart from transcribing, I've been trying to play a game Ted loaned me called Red Dead Redemption. It's set in the wild west. It's a fun game and everything, but between the baby and transcribing, I don't really have time. Any time I do have is spent trying to organize the new apartment some more. The study looks a lot better. I'm surrounded by books, and they're organized. It's great. Behind me, there's still a bunch of boxes full of stuff, but the room is much more navigable. It'll be great when it's done.

Speaking of done, I finished the book I was reading, High Fidelity. Yeah, just like the movie with Jack Black and John Cusack. It had a lot of things in common with Rabbit Run, which I detested, but I enjoyed this one. I think that's because, despite himself, the main character is easier to relate to. It seems to be a trend, though, in literature. The protagonist who is a child disguised as a man, or rather, the man who still feels and behaves like a child but has grown-up responsibilities and sometimes aspirations. These are the two camps I've found: The man-child (High Fidelity, Rabbit Run, Choke), and The libido's last gasp (Everyman, Toward the End of Time). There are probably more in-between, but I haven't read any recently.

I'm a little surprised Luke isn't online right now. He's got a radio show on KPSU that's really good, and he's normally chatting while he's playing music, but not today. I have to tell him Red Horse is closing. It's totally lame.

Okay. Well, until next time. Check out the movie trailers for Cowboys and Aliens and Green Lantern. I think they're pretty great.

Moved! The baby -- she has grown

Yes it has been a while. I have plenty of good reasons for this, and also plenty of new items in the meantime. Let's get started.

We successfully moved. We're very happy and excited about it, and our new place has many advantages over our old one. It's much bigger and has much more storage, has a larger dining room, and the parking lot is never full. It's also a townhouse-style apartment, so it's two levels. There's no one above or below us, only on either side. The walls seem thicker, too.

On the other hand, there's no dishwasher, there are no bodies above and below us to help keep the apartment warm, and we suspect our next-door neighbor is a ward of the State. He's kind of creepy. Ted and I thought he was homeless and scoping the place out when we first saw him. He's kept to himself, though; I'm not worried about him.

Aislin can now sit on her own, though she needs help getting into a sitting position. She doesn't crawl, although she desperately wants to. She'll lay on her stomach and come so close and then get frustrated she's not moving anywhere. On her back, she'll push with her feet and scoot. When we put her on her stomach now for tummy time, she just rolls over and scoots around instead of crawling. She's amazingly ticklish and laughs when Kate or I tickle her. She not only sticks out her tongue and gives Bronx cheers, she also makes a hissing-like noise while she's smiling that often leads into laughter. It's like that noise we make when we sort-of laugh at something. You'd recognize it if you heard it. She screams. She coos. She takes glasses of your face and ties to suck on them.

She's also been eating some solid food. Kate's fed her peas, and they make her diapers a disaster area.

I should get back to work. I've got a transcription that needs to get done, so I need to get after it. Now that my computer is set up (with a swanky new desk to boot) I should be able to make posts more regularly.

Water and Solids

And we just started her on solid foods. She seems to enjoy drinking water.

Anniversaries, Airplanes, and Aislin awash with relatives

Happy anniversary to me! Three years ago, I got married. Ever since I've felt a little closer to being an actual grown-up. Still not there yet, but getting ever closer.

All kinds of news. First of all, the reason I've been lacking in the posts lately is because Kate and I spent ten glorious days in Canada with her family. They had to meet this baby, you know. We were excited about it because it would be the first time Aislin would travel by airplane. The trip up went very well; any time we took off or landed, Kate nursed to keep Aislin distracted. The sucking action kept her ears acclimating to the altitude changes and the flights were very pleasant. The hardest part was the "indefinite delay" in the Seattle airport, but it didn't turn out to be very long.

After we landed, Kate's uncle Eric and his daughter Erica (who was a flower girl three years ago today) picked us up in Edmonton. We had about a two-hour drive ahead of us. They brought a car seat for Aislin so we wouldn't have to pack ours. She cried the entire car trip. Nursing didn't help. We didn't see Eric and Erica again. We later figured out it was the scent of the car seat, and a cycle through the washer without soap fixed the problem.

Aislin smiled at all her extended family. Her great grandfather Bob held her that first night, and Aislin tolerated it for a while. He said to me he remembered holding Kate's mom when she was that small. She loved Kate's uncles, especially. She'd smile at them and pinch their faces. Toward the end of our stay, she started daily explorations of her vocal range. It was unpleasant for Kate's grandparents -- at for Kate too -- but I secretly enjoyed it.

The trip consisted of Kate's aunts, uncles, and cousins stopping by to meet her and far more missed than captured Kodak moments. I finished 1984, read Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby and Toward the End of Time by John Updike. I always get my best reading done up there. I liked Hornby's book even though I know nothing about English football. It was an autobiographical account of his lifelong love/hate relationship/obsession with Arsenal. I could somewhat resonate with his experiences being somewhat of a Beaver fan, but I really enjoyed his narrative voice so I checked out High Fidelity and Juliet Naked when I got back. Updike's novel was much more cerebral and scandalous. It was basically about a retiree in a future Boston after a nuclear war between the States and China who is totally selfish and horny. Everything makes him think about fornication, so most of the time I was reading with a grimace on my face. But when it wasn't gross it was intelligent and lyrical. As I'm writing about it, I'm comparing it to Everyman by Philip Roth, which also featured a protagonist dealing with the libido's last gasp. Roth's book is much more accessible than Updike's, but not as beautifully-written. At least Roth's had a complete ending (he dies). Updike's character is left languishing before the inevitable that comes after the book ends, leaving him indefinitely waiting. I think it's Updike's last novel, and he incorporated poetry into the prose beautifully. Reading a novel by Updike is like reading poetry by Eliot: you're practically fooling yourself.

The airplane trips back to Oregon were not nearly as pleasant. Aislin slept the entire car ride over, but then screamed during almost the entirety of the flights. She wouldn't nurse, and had a diaper explosion right away. The trouble was, both flights were go-up, go-down; the seatbelt light didn't seem to ever go out. Our layover was so short they had a cart waiting to dash us across the airport to customs, which turned out to only be about 2/3 of the way to the gate. And then it turned out the very kind lady in the Edmonton Airport didn't include a boarding pass for Aislin, so they almost sent us back to get one. If we had been in the States I bet they would have, but since they were wonderfully kind Canadians they got it for us. We made our flight just barely. They had waited for us. By the time we drove in to our apartment parking lot (at 12:30 in the morning), we were exhausted and sighed for relief. It was a great trip, but we were glad to be home.

Because...

We found a new apartment! Remember, they raised our rent here? Like, out of our budget? Well, we found a new apartment that is much bigger than our current one, and is less per-month than even before they raised it here! AND they'll allow a piano. The only downside is no dishwasher, but with so many advantages it's easy to overlook that. I should be getting the key today. So exciting.

Also, don't tell Kate, but Mom and Dad have agreed to bravely watch Aislin tonight so I can take her out to dinner for our anniversary. I should go, actually, because I need to get flowers and a card.

Pleasantness

Yesterday, Aislin was such a wonderful baby. She was very pleasant and only cried a few times. When she did cry, she had very discernible concerns that I was able to meet. She took some naps, but even when she was awake, she just cooed when I couldn't play with her. It was a very nice day, considering she's teething.

Lately, she's been more difficult. She now has a tooth on her lower jaw, so that's super exciting. That excitement is countered by her mood. She's been very difficult. That seems to have passed for the moment, though.

Last night, she slept very well. The night before that, she slept even better. The night before that, she didn't sleep at all. It's a much better situation now.

We've been trying to prepare for our trip to Canada this Saturday to visit Kate's grandparents. This is our first time traveling with our baby; all of our previous journeys with babies have been both generally unpleasant and concerning babies that aren't ours. They were either crying or kicking our seat. Aislin won't be like that though. Not if she keeps up this pleasantness.

Yesterday, she was so pleasant I even got some transcribing done. Peggy sent me a file on an e-mail, and I downloaded it to my computer desktop and started working on it. I was about 40 pages in when I decided to move the file into the proper folder. When I opened the file again to make sure it moved okay, it was blank. I freaked out. After a few phone calls and about an hour of panic, I finally found a back up file that had most of my work on it. So I think we're good now, but it was scary. And frustrating. I'd never had anything like this happen.

Lately Kate and I have found the joy that is Modern Family. Yeah, it's been around for a year now, but we just found it. It's funny stuff. Didn't know.

The horizon isn't as far as you think

I haven't written in a long time. There are a couple of reasons. I've been busy in body and mind.

It seems like as soon as Aislin develops a recognizable pattern, she breaks it. Lately, she's been sleeping through the night (mostly), she takes a short morning nap, a short afternoon nap, normally eats around 9:00 AM, about half an hour after Kate goes back to work after lunch, and then again around 3:00. Around 5:30 she gets hungry again, but Kate's almost home so I just try to distract her.

Aislin rolls with relative ease now. She'll be lying on her back and roll onto her side, then she'll be on her belly. The way she moves, it's as if she knows how to crawl already -- she's just not strong enough yet to do it. She lifts her head as high as she can, kicks a little -- trying to find purchase, and sometimes she moves a little. So far, she's kept at it for a few minutes and then screamed in frustration. She's also chewing her toes a lot. She's been doing that for a while. She doesn't laugh reliably. She's giggled, and now both Kate and I have made her make a laugh-like sound, but most of the time she just coos with a big smile on her face when she should be laughing.

Over the weekend, Kate and I looked at our finances. Always a depressing activity. Still, I paid off a loan completely that I'd been working on for a few years. That was nice. Also, over the weekend it was Talk Like a Pirate day, so the Monkey Island games were super cheap. The classic ones are normally $10, but they were on sale for $5. The newer ones are normally $35, but they were also on sale for $5. This is a big deal because Kate loves adventure games that test your wit and puzzle-solving capabilities over your reflexes, like King's Quest, and these games are totally in that ilk. So I bought 'em. She's been enjoying them.

I've been trying to find a new place for us to live, but as the last person I called said to me, "this is the absolute worst time to try to find a place." I'm pretty furious with our owner. I'm not angry with our property management group at all; they've been super friendly and sympathetic. The person who owns our building, though... He has our building painted and raises our monthly rent $150. That's expensive paint. Comparatively speaking, I'm sure we still have it pretty cheap compared to what some are paying, but it's far out of our budget for us. Whatever. We'll just move and it'll be fine. Still, it would have been nice to have our rent raised at some time when there are actually apartments available in Corvallis. A lot of things would have been nice.

I think it says a lot when the highlight of my week was doing laundry with Ted.

Misadventures and Baby Laughter

Just sort of catching up. There are a few things that I need to tell all of you, I guess, but nothing really ground-breaking. Well maybe. I don't know. Enough stalling. Here goes.

Aislin has made a few landmarks lately. First off, she's sucking her toes. More often than not, she'll grab her foot but get distracted before it gets to her mouth. Sometimes though, she'll start sucking away. It's pretty cute -- except when her feet are grubby and stinky. Then it's kind of gross. Still, it's a developmental landmark.

The other day, I was changing Aislin's clothes and I started tickling her. One great thing about having a beard is that babies find it really ticklish. So I was tickling her belly and she totally laughed. It was short-lived, but I totally heard it. I stand by it, even after I've showed Kate and she says she's heard her do that before and it doesn't really count. She laughed. And it was because of me. Booyah.

On the working front, transcribing work is pouring in. So that's good. Also, I got a call last week from a guy who needed someone to type up his letters. He didn't have access to a computer, and he was writing a letter to a judge so he needed it to look as professional as possible. He lived a ways away, but it was work. I drove out there and picked up his letters. I began to think it wasn't such a great idea. First of all, his place was a mess. I'm uncomfortable around new people anyway, but this guy kind of scared me. The letter was easy enough to type though, so I did it up and got it back to him. I undercharged him, but I was okay with it as long as we parted ways. Then this past week, he called me again and expressed how happy he was with my work, and wanted to employ me again. It was work, so I agreed. We also agreed that I needed to be charged more. This time, he was working at a friend's place doing yard work for $5 an hour. First, I went to the wrong house and walked up the front walk. There was a dead decomposing mouse on the walk that yellow jackets were feasting on, and it creeped me out. Turns out it was the wrong house, but it's an appropriate metaphor. I met the guy's friend, and he called himself "the sane one." Yeah, ominous right? To be "the sane one" implies there's someone around who's insane. Well. I got these letters from my employer and typed them up. They scared me. It was as if they were written for another part of himself. They were a stream of consciousness that bounced off the loose screws. When I got these pages back to him, I told him I was falling behind on my transcribing so I couldn't do this anymore. He took it well, I think. We shook hands, and then he said "I guess I'll just have to rip down all your signs on campus, then." I laughed, shrugged, got in my car and drove the heck away. He paid me, but it was then that I remembered a policy regarding my freelance editing: if they can't e-mail it to me, we can't do business.

It's sad how this blog is supposed to be all about my time with daughter, but on posts like this I breeze right over her and talk about my misadventures with crazy people. As soon as Aislin does things as convoluted and involved as a crazy person, I'll tell you all about it. I promise.

Post Labor Day Sale!

Happy Labor Day (belated) everyone! I hope everyone had a good three-day weekend.

As is common with most vacations, I didn't get as much done as I wanted. My dad had been wanting to work on the dog run all summer, and he and I punched it out this weekend. In years past, the rainy season (Fall-Spring) would wreak havoc on it, and Sage would have to jump over huge puddles to get into her house. Not so anymore. We hope. Now, there's a drainage pipe beneath a foundation of treated 4 x 4s and paving stones. It looks much nicer. The hardest part, in my opinion, was getting the stinking thing level. After struggling with it, I admitted to Dad that it probably didn't have to be TOTALLY level -- I mean, she's a good dog and all, but... Anyway, it's done now.

For Labor Day, our friends Julia and Sam came over for breakfast and ended up staying for a late lunch. It was great hanging out with them. Also, Kate and I had learned that Dutch Bros was having a special: $1 for any drink any size. So they brought us coffee, too. They also brought their son, Colin. Previously, Colin and Aislin didn't get along as well as we had hoped. Colin thought Aislin was the bees knees, but Aislin wasn't impressed. This time, they got along swimmingly. There were pictures taken.

I've been doing some transcribing, and I recently got another editing job, so our financial situation is totally looking up. Also, I've found some apartments and some duplexes for rent, so we might be able to move before they raise our current payments. So encouragement abounds. Oh nuts. I forgot to go to Bi-mart for Lucky Number Tuesday. Well, it's not too late. I better be off. First I'll see about uploading some pictures.

Weekend Update

Not long ago, we picked up some new shirts for Aislin at a Target in Eugene on our way to the Lane County Fair. These shirts were pretty cool. One had the AC/DC logo on it and the phrase "For those about to rock." The other was a dark pink with a little bird singing the alphabet. We liked that one because it was literary. Last night, Kate and I were looking at our daughter in the latter shirt, and we realized that apparently, birds can't sing the letter "O." The letter "O" was missing. We couldn't believe it. So much for literary.

We got a notice last week that our landlord is going to raise our rent substantially. He's going to raise it so much it's no longer in our budget to live here, so we need to have a new place by October 1. Stressful? Oh yes. Also pretty exciting. I'd been craving a little adventure and this is just the thing. I'm not despairing because Kate just got a huge raise and I'm beginning the transcribing thing, so financially things are looking up. Otherwise, this could be the recipe for the perfect storm.

This weekend Kate and I, along with her parents, went to a barbecue at a house her aunts and grandmother bought recently. A lot of Kate's family was there, including her cousin's three year old daughter who did not appreciate the competition Aislin provided. While Kate finished eating, I took Aislin for walks around their house in the yard. I thought about how much I wanted a yard so things like this could happen on a more regular basis. She should have the opportunity to play outside and use her imagination, not be drawn to the tv like so many of her peers. She's already drawn to the tv. On Friday, we went to McMenamins and the primary thing she was interested in was the tv over our shoulders.

She's learning a bunch of developmental stuff too. She hasn't laughed yet, but she's rolling over onto her stomach on her own, and she grabs her feet. Once, she managed to get her toes into her mouth, but it hasn't happened since. She's really upset right now, so I'm going to cut this blog entry off here. Thanks for reading!

A rant

So I've started transcribing a little bit, and it's kind of rocky. It requires getting used to a new program, and I'm not yet. It's kind of frustrating. But I'll get used to it. The REALLY frustrating part, is that my anti-virus program freaks out every time I start it up. It randomly deletes drivers that I need in order to run the program, it blocks hardware from working properly, and is generally overly aggressive. On top of that, Windows just tried to install an update that looked pertinent to this program and couldn't do it for some reason. I tried all of the Microsoft-suggested solutions, but they all involved my credit card number. Forget it. I tried restarting, and now NOTHING IS WORKING. Luckily, Aislin is sleeping. But she wasn't earlier. I was so frustrated at my computer, meanwhile my baby is crying like a banshee. Then the phone rings. It feels like Monday struck a day too late.

Earlier this morning, Aislin was being totally cute. She was talking and having a great time. Kate fed her and we had a lovely breakfast together. Half an hour after Kate fed her, Aislin thinks it's time to eat again. I'm thinking, yeah right. You just ate. Nope. She's hungry again. She downs something like four ounces and goes to sleep.

Just, since I'm ranting a little, look at this: last night I rented disc five of the fifth season of Lost. It has ONE EPISODE on it. ONE!!!! It reminded me of the first season of Heroes, because the last disc in that series also had only one episode on it, BUT it was rented out alongside the previous disc!! Because back then, they knew that renting a disc of a tv show with only ONE EPISODE on it was a rip off. Now, in the days of Netflix, Blockbuster isn't as generous. Also, check this out: why oh why does there need to be five discs anyway? The discs hold four episodes, and disc one only had three! AND all the blu-ray companies are all like "bleh, it holds so much more data, bleh." Well then, tell me why there are the exact same number of blu-ray discs as DVDs. Because the more merchandise there is, the greater the likelihood that one will break, thus forcing the buyer to replace it later. Ugh. Generally, I'm in favor of Capitalism. But heartless Capitalism that takes advantage of a consumer like that... when I'm mad, it only makes me madder. But most of the time I don't really care.

FYI: Tech support just called on my computer. Try plugging it into a different USB port, they say. I do, and it works fine. Everything is better. Back to work for me.

Grumpiness and Income from Daddy! FINALLY

Aislin's four-month birthday was on Saturday. She must have begun her fourth-month growth spurt, because lately she's been more fussy than usual. We used to be able to take her wherever we wanted and she would do just fine. She'd patiently let strangers hold her and she'd fall asleep all the time... she was pretty much the ideal baby. Now, though, she's developed some preferences. She definitely prefers Mom and Dad, and anyone else holding her is going to have an unhappy baby before long. This has been... upsetting? Difficult? A change for Grandma and Grandpa. My parents used to be able to take her whenever and she'd just go to sleep or be content while Grandma rocked her. Now, not so much. It's Mom, Dad, or nothing doing. On Saturday (her four month birthday, remember?) we went and saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and left her with my Mom and Dad. Evidently, she cried the entire time we were gone. By the time we got back, Dad was ready for a nap from walking her all over. Sometimes the only thing she wants is to be vertical and moving around. She doesn't even like being rocked like a normal baby. It's too boring or stagnant or something. She has to MOVE.

Today, she was grumpy. On top of her new preferences, she was grumpy. The only thing she wanted was to be moving or eating. Anything else would not fly. Normally she takes a mid-morning nap and an afternoon nap. Well, the mid-morning nap lasted for about 15 minutes and then the crying began. I couldn't get hardly anything done. It was pretty frustrating for me; I just wanted her to be her cheerful self -- or at least give her what she needed. Sometimes, I can put her on our bed and she'll squeal and pull my beard and tell me all kinds of things, but today all she wanted was to eat and move. No naps. No sitting. No playing. Food.

On the employment front, remember those fliers Ted, Nick, and I made and posted around campus? Well, they were advertising my editing skills. Someone hired me. Yeah! Someone needed a history paper looked over by midnight Friday and I took the job. He left a message on my phone, and at first I thought he said 200 pages. I gulped and wasn't sure if I could get that many pages edited by midnight, but he said it was only 200 words. Oh man. I could do that in half an hour. It was more like 2000 words, because it was five pages. Anyway, I said I could just look for grammar and that would be one dollar per page, or I could go through it with a fine-tooth comb and that would be 2.50 per page. He said he'd pay me 20 bucks to get it as good as possible. Booyah. Done and done. It was a success, and when he paid me on Saturday he said he'd recommend me to anyone. His girlfriend was a writer and she was impressed with my comments and he said she may need an editor in her future sometime. At least, I assume it was his girlfriend. It was a girl, who appeared to be something like a friend. It was a success. All around. 20 bucks! After an entire year, I bring in some money again! A tiny victory -- a minute, microscopic one even -- but a victory nonetheless! Kate and I were so excited we made business cards for me. They look great.

It's late now, so I'm off to bed. One thing about Aislin acting up all day is that she normally sleeps more at night. So that's good. I'm looking at the good side of things right now. She's still enormously cute. She steals every party we go to.

Oh! Really fast. We had dinner with a friend of mine from high school, Julia, and her husband Sam, and their six-month-old son Colin. It was the first time either Colin or Aislin had seen another baby, so we held them up to each other. Colin thought she was just the greatest thing. His eyes got wide and he started bouncing and reaching out to touch her and talking to her... Aislin on the other hand, was not so sure. She looked at him and let him touch her, but she didn't bounce or coo like he did. She just turned shyly back to Mommy. I told her guys like a little reciprocity, but I understood. Hopefully she didn't inherit my prohibitively shy nature. It was kind of sad; Colin was only six months old, and he had already faced his first rejection. We thought it was funny though. By the time we were leaving, we held them up to each other one last time and they both began to cry. Kate and I promised Colin we'd talk him up when we got home. Maybe that's why Aislin's been so grumpy lately...

Trooper

Recently Aislin has begun to try to talk. I've heard "good," "poop," "me," "milk," and "mom." The last one means the most to me. Mom? What about Dad? She hasn't really made the Aah vowel sound yet, except in "waaaah," so I'm still waiting for her to say "Dad." Of course, I believe all of this is Kate and I assigning words and meaning to sounds she's making. She's not quite four months old. It's a little early to be talking.

Over the weekend, she was a trooper. We went to a party on Saturday and she was as peaceful as could be. She let us know when it was time to go home, but until then she put up with everything. On Sunday we had an early morning breakfast with my best friend who's in town for only four days, and then we went down to Eugene. Once again, she was tolerant of the whole thing until she wasn't. Which was a good long time. What a great baby.

Lately she's had bouts of inconsolable. Have I talked about this? Probably, but what it means is she's recognizing a new need she has and we, her parents, have no idea what it is. Sometimes she's hungry, sometimes she needs a new diaper, sometimes she's just tired. Normally when Kate's here, the golden ticket is nursing. That calms her down no matter what. A few times now she's wanted something else and we don't know what it is. We still don't.

The apartment is a mess and I've been trying to get it cleaned up, but Aislin doesn't seem to want that to happen. She insists she needs to be fed or changed or held all the time. By the time I convince her to take her mid-morning nap, I'm tired myself. The apartment stays squalid. I didn't even get my cup of coffee today until almost 11:00. All I had to do was pour it. On the one hand, it's good. I don't have to justify to myself or anyone else not having a job. If I spend all my time trying to take care of the baby as best I can and I can't even get a cup of coffee from a pot that's already made, or I can't keep the apartment in a livable condition, how can I possibly have a job? I would like to someday go to graduate school, but if this keeps up there's no way in heaven or on earth. It's a paradox. It's confining, but also liberating. I'm confined to this apartment, but liberated from outside responsibility. For now. Eventually everything changes. I'm content to wait.